Are there any story-based RPGs anymore

August 20th, 2013, 19:31

I search the RPG news everyday, and while I see a lot of stuff in the works; not many get completed. I don't want to play RPG/Action, RPG/Adventure, RPG/Strategy, RPG on line; etc., I want to play a good RPG with a story. Do they still make those anymore?

Yes, that's the bad thing, imho : RPgs have always been about combat, instead of about story … What, if it had been vice versa ? This kind of game just doesn't exist : You don't get experience points for solving riddles, for example …

There was an Shannara game, this comes as close as possible to this vision.
It's rather Adventure than RPG, though.

As a biased fan I say : You could try out Drakensang 2.

-- “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I guess I was pretty vague on my question. Something on the lines of the Ultima series or the Elder Scrolls series. I like quests, I like a goal in the game, something the resembles a story, a plot, subplots, etc. I do not like strategy. I guess I like killing stuff; but more than a dungeon crawler where all you do is destroy.

The Secret World has a better story than most single player 'RPGs' these days. Also, your examples confuse me: you cite story then list TES as an example?! TES for me is more about kicking over molehills that you see on the horizon than it is about any story you care about. Great world-building, awful everything else.

I think for better story and less reliance on combat, you'd have to come to terms with the fact that common RPGs aren't about that, you probably want to either visit the adventure genre (Longest Journey) or redefine where your interests lie.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Yes, that's the bad thing, imho : RPgs have always been about combat, instead of about story … What, if it had been vice versa ? This kind of game just doesn't exist : You don't get experience points for solving riddles, for example …

There was an Shannara game, this comes as close as possible to this vision.
It's rather Adventure than RPG, though.

As a biased fan I say : You could try out Drakensang 2.

i thought the common complaint was that strategic combat was being dumped in favour of simplistic and easy gameplay resulting in "interactive movies"/story-based games. If anything the major RPGs in the last few years (TES aside) have been much more focused on story.

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I'd just like to interject here and point out that I'm not going to say anything to spoil the mood, Chief. I'll just float here and watch. Don't mind me, just sitting here, floating and watching, that's me.

If story is all you're interested in then try the side-scroller games and point and click ones. The former lack all RPG elements while the later have some form of player control on the character or story (i.e The Walking Dead by Telltale games, To The Moon, Heavy Rain, Katawa Shoujo, Back To The Future The Game, Ace Attorney and Dear Esther. Upcoming include: Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse, new King's Quest, Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey and Everybody's Gone to Rapture). Although don't quote me on that. I haven't played half these games but I know most of them seem to have some form of player choice (dialogue system).

They do exist but they aren't categorized as RPG's which may explain why you can't find them OP (you're looking in the wrong places).

Originally Posted by Drithius
TES for me is more about kicking over molehills that you see on the horizon than it is about any story you care about. Great world-building, awful everything else.

But if you role-play your character you can make up your own story, which is really what open-world role-playing is all about. I see the main plots in those games as a starting point, but, yeah, they have been decreasing in quality over the last few games.

Originally Posted by max killen
I guess I was pretty vague on my question. Something on the lines of the Ultima series or the Elder Scrolls series. I like quests, I like a goal in the game, something the resembles a story, a plot, subplots, etc. I do not like strategy. I guess I like killing stuff; but more than a dungeon crawler where all you do is destroy.

Well that's pretty broad. Among relatively recent releases, Shadowrun returns, Expeditions: Conquistador, and Mars War logs may be worth a look. If you are willing to go back a little further, have you already checked out Risen 2, Mass Effect 3, Game of Thrones, Avernum, Kingdoms of Amalur?

Skyrim has lots of strong story content in my opinion. The main story isn't exactly brilliant - but I loved the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines - and there's a shit-ton of neat books to find. We're talking a staggering amount of story, really.

I think I spent 80 hours with Skyrim when it first came out - and I kept finding new books all the time. I was very impressed by that.

Maybe that's not "story-based" but I don't think it can be so easily dismissed.

Overall, I think Skyrim has been treated with too much scorn - and while I can appreciate that Oblivion created some justified backlash - I don't think it's entirely fair to add Skyrim when reacting against post-Morrowind TES games.

Ok, it's still not a masterpiece in terms of story and NPCs- but it's better than a lot of people give it credit for.

DArtagnan

TES games are sandbox CRPGs. The main story is only there, to give the player a cause to explore the world.
And that is the fun of it, create your own story, roleplay as much as you like, stick to certain armour, weapons and factions. Find your path trough the world, create your own destiny.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
TES games are sandbox CRPGs. The main story is only there, to give the player a cause to explore the world.
And that is the fun of it, create your own story, roleplay as much as you like, stick to certain armour, weapons and factions. Find your path trough the world, create your own destiny.

True enough.

But giving players a cause to explore the world is not trivial - and I'd argue that the more compelling and significant your story content, the more desirable it will be to keep exploring for new things.

I don't think developers can get away with huge sandbox games without significant story anymore - that's a thing of the past.

It used to be enough to just have a world to explore - but people have figured out that huge empty worlds aren't all that appealing when it all comes down to it.

Skyrim took great strides towards giving players more unique content to find in dungeons - especially when you compare it to Oblivion which had almost nothing unique in most dungeons.